CBI: Gujarat govt refuses nod to prosecute Vanzara & others

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat government has declined sanction to prosecute retired police officers D.G. Vanzara and N.K. Amin in the alleged fake encounter case of Ishrat Jahan and three others, the Central Bureau of Investigation told a special CBI court on Tuesday.

The government’s decision may pave the way for the controversial case against Mr Vanzara and Mr Amin to be dropped.

After going through a letter submitted to the court by CBI lawyer R.C. Kodekar, judge J.K. Pandya said the sanction to prosecute the two former officers, who were accused in the case, under Section 197 of the CrPC, was declined by the state government.

The defence lawyers then sought permission to file an application to drop the proceedings against Mr Vanzara and Mr Amin. The court granted the request and asked them to file an application on March 26.

It will now be up to the CBI to decide whether to proceed with the case against the two without the government sanction.

As per CrPC Section 197, prior sanction is required from a competent authority to prosecute a public servant. The court had earlier rejected the discharge pleas of Mr Vanzara, former deputy inspector general of police in Gujarat, and Mr Amin, who retired as superintendent of police, and asked the CBI to clear its stand on whether it wants to get sanction from the state government to prosecute them.

Accordingly, the CBI wrote to the state government requesting the same. Mr Vanzara and Mr Amin are two of the seven accused chargesheeted by the CBI in the case.

Mr Vanzara had sought discharge in the case on the ground of parity with the state’s former in-cha-rge director general of police P.P. Pandey, who was discharged in the case in February last year for want of evidence.

Mr Amin’s application seeking discharge was based on the ground that the encounter was genuine and that testimonies of witnesses produced by the CBI were not reliable.